Gorgeous blooms Margie! My Golden Fairy Tale is still quite small, can hardly wait to see blooms like that.

Lots of rebloom going on here:

The always lovely Helen Hayes

Heaven on Earth

Pure Poetry

Graham Thomas

South Africa

Tradescant

Jerry Jennings

William Shakespeare 2000

Finishing up the chicken coop, hubby is doing such a fabulous job with it, best looking coop ever!! Added two new day old babies to the extended brooder yesterday. We'll open up the partition between the brooders to join them to the 3 week old ones in a few days. The 'doggie TV' remains popular. (enlarge to see doggie #2, those are plexiglass windows)

"sure" ...??? I received Hot Chocolate from Burlington Rose Nursery this Spring. I was told this rose is similar to Smoky which was/is out of stock. According to her Spring availability catalog she does not offer Hot Cocoa. I have to agree with you that it does look a lot like Hot Cocoa but I believe there may be a difference. I don't know all the rose lingo - so you will have to bear with me. Here's 2 pics - 1 of Hot Chocolate and 1 of Hot Cocoa as they are begin to bloom (open up). If you look at the lower petals you can see the colors differ. I tried to match the text writing with the darkest part of each rose. The lower petals on Hot Chocolate is more uniform in color. The lower petals on Hot Cocoa are more blotchy. It's not until Hot Cocoa opens up more (matures) that the color becomes more saturated. You may see this better in the photos on the database. I am not 100% positive about this, however, as I recall, the petals on Hot Cocoa are thinner. The petals on Hot Chocolate are more substantial - thicker. Both leaves appear shiny. Although Hot Chocolate's leaves appear a lighter green in color. Keep in mind the plant may require more nitrogen or iron??? These are my present observations. If my observations change I will update. As I said previously, "I have to agree with you that it does look a lot like Hot Cocoa."

If it's from Burling, you're probably right. I think she's the only one on this continent who sells Hot Chocolate, and I trust her completely to name her roses correctly, alhough Hot Chocolate is one of the alternative names of Hot Cocoa. I was looking at the shape of the blooms when I wondered about it. The Hot Chocolates that I've seen have a tighter petal arangement, more like an old-fashioned rose. Your photos show a looser, more open arrangement of petals. The thickness of the petals, though, is an important difference, so I'm sure you're right. There's no better test than growing both and noting the differences between the two.

Then she is using the right name, and not an alternative one. It's so wonderful that Burling carries some highly elusive roses. I hope you can get Smoky from her someday. She's the only one that carries the "real" Smoky.